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Low drive space

I need help figuring out what's taking up so much space on my HDD. I have a pretty small drive in today's standards, just shy over 200GB.

I've had this Windows 7 machine since 2011 and feel I keep my machine lite and clean, but I just found out I have less than 50% left and I do remember for the longest time I've kept it just over 25% of used space.

I feel if I ignore it, the performance might suffer and being that it's an old machine, keeping it from slowing down is a bit of maintenance.

I have some storage solutions on the way and I do know I have about 10GB of personal stuff to relocate. I still feel a lot of space is being taken by something. One question I have is how much room would Windows 7 normally take up with about 5 years of updates? Are there any Windows settings I can change, or clean up that could slim up the OS?

I use Slim Cleaner regularly, I used to use CCleaner, but I just liked Slim Cleaner better.

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My C:\ Drive runs at about 30G with no extra files , only Win 7 Operating Sytem etc , and up to date.

I would save all personal files to an external drive anyway , and as a backup also.

Havent used slimCleaner and prefer Ccleaner , as it can also delete System Restore Points that accumalate { Exception of Last Point } and this can save more space. Also remove unwanted Programs via Add/Remove - Program Features.

If you have done this allready , or removed System Updated files via C:\ - Properties - Disc Cleanup - More Options Tab.

Okay. I'll try Disc Cleanup. I think I've removed all bloatware, I'm not sure if Slim Cleaner removes restore points, I'll check. Are system update files useless after the updates have finished, or are they constantly used and just not cleaned up?

I have been trying to store all personal files externally, but the usb drive I've been using is a lemon and seeing about getting a replacement.

- Add the folder "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download" to the list of folders to be cleaned in Ccleaner. With each bunch of updates that folder grows and grows. If you.ve never deleted that folder then we could be talking GBs.

- Did you install Optional Update KB 2852386 ? Some optional updates have a questionable reputation but this one is a true gem. If you have no intention to remove any of the updates any more, then with that update you can use the build-in "Disk Clean Up" tool to reduce the size of the infamous "C:\Windows\winsxs" folder. We could also be talking GBs. There's somewhere a button that can do the trick.

"...If you're using Internet Explorer then you can tell IE to remove all the temporary internet files after you close IE. (Does anyone know whether Chrome & Firefox have a similar option ?)..."

Yes, for sure Firefox has option to remove almost everything upon exit. Not sure about Chrome just yet -- my ccleaner run at startup removes all cache files [nothing but cache files] for all three of my browsers.

My C:\ Drive runs at about 30G with no extra files , only Win 7 Operating Sytem etc , and up to date.

I would save all personal files to an external drive anyway , and as a backup also.

Havent used slimCleaner and prefer Ccleaner , as it can also delete System Restore Points that accumalate { Exception of Last Point } and this can save more space. Also remove unwanted Programs via Add/Remove - Program Features.

If you have done this allready , or removed System Updated files via C:\ - Properties - Disc Cleanup - More Options Tab.

Okay so I did those things and between Disc Cleaner and CCleaner I freed up about 11GB. I'm still looking at programs I don't want, I'm pretty sure I removed them all, I don't keep bloatware either.

I did look at all the root directories in my master drive that has the OS and I looked at my user file that includes %appdata%, between that file and 13 other root directories with hidden files shown, it shows I've used up 46GB. That means there's over 60GB I can't figure out where that's being used.

- Add the folder "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download" to the list of folders to be cleaned in Ccleaner. With each bunch of updates that folder grows and grows. If you.ve never deleted that folder then we could be talking GBs.

- Did you install Optional Update KB 2852386 ? Some optional updates have a questionable reputation but this one is a true gem. If you have no intention to remove any of the updates any more, then with that update you can use the build-in "Disk Clean Up" tool to reduce the size of the infamous "C:\Windows\winsxs" folder. We could also be talking GBs. There's somewhere a button that can do the trick.

"...If you're using Internet Explorer then you can tell IE to remove all the temporary internet files after you close IE. (Does anyone know whether Chrome & Firefox have a similar option ?)..."

Yes, for sure Firefox has option to remove almost everything upon exit. Not sure about Chrome just yet -- my ccleaner run at startup removes all cache files [nothing but cache files] for all three of my browsers.

Ick. I wouldn't use IE. The disk cleanup tool I use, I purge all temp files and cookies. I'm not sure if Chrome has something to delete on exit. I'll check.

- No, "Downloads" is one of the many subfolders in the "C:\Windows", not in the "Documents" folder. To be precise the full path of that folder is "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Downloads". I assume you can add that folder to a list of folders to be cleaned in SlimCleaner as well.

- Run WizTree and let the program pull up the 1000 largest files on your HD, make a screenshot and post that in your next reply.

Okay. I don't know what I did. I think I might have cleaned some files that Windows did not agree with. I almost though I ruined my OS, I restarted my machine and Windows was shutting down like I was updating, but I didn't pick anything to update. When the OS was launching again, it was on the splash screen that it was configuring updates and got stuck at 100%. I called a tech and said go ahead and shut down. I got back to the desktop, but the splash screen said "Cleaning up" which I've never seen before. I restarted again and the Windows launch time is a lot smoother now.

I checked for disk errors and bad sectors. I checked my drive space again and it's under 50% used now, which is better than it was.

- No, "Downloads" is one of the many subfolders in the "C:\Windows", not in the "Documents" folder. To be precise the full path of that folder is "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Downloads". I assume you can add that folder to a list of folders to be cleaned in SlimCleaner as well.

- Run WizTree and let the program pull up the 1000 largest files on your HD, make a screenshot and post that in your next reply.

- Don't worry. After you have reduced the size of the "Winsxs" folder, Windows needs to reconfigure the links in that subfolder. And that takes some time.

- Those LARGE files (GBs) in the "C:\System Volume Information" folder are the files that Windows creates for the System Restore Points (SRPs). No need to worry. Windows makes every no & then such a point. E.g. when you install a program. When the amount of free space shrinks beyond a certain point then Windows will automatically free up disk space by deleting one or more of the oldest SRPs. And you can Always manually remove one or more SRPs.

- About "SoftwareDistribution\downloads": when you have cleaned out that folder then Windows will recreate some files that are needed but these are relatively small. Nothing to be worried about.

- Don't worry. After you have reduced the size of the "Winsxs" folder, Windows needs to reconfigure the links in that subfolder. And that takes some time.

- Those LARGE files (GBs) in the "C:\System Volume Information" folder are the files that Windows creates for the System Restore Points (SRPs). No need to worry. Windows makes every no & then such a point. E.g. when you install a program. When the amount of free space shrinks beyond a certain point then Windows will automatically free up disk space by deleting one or more of the oldest SRPs. And you can Always manually remove one or more SRPs.

- About "SoftwareDistribution\downloads": when you have cleaned out that folder then Windows will recreate some files that are needed but these are relatively small. Nothing to be worried about.

Yes. I'll have to look in to reducing the size of the winsxs folder. It looks a little technical.

I looked in to my Windows restore points and I have none, I think I removed all of them unintentionally. That's why I was really nervous when Windows was not loading the desktop. I still have personal files I don't want to loose, until my backup storage comes in the mail.

Hrm. So with all the files in the "SoftwareDistribution\downloads" folder, Windows generates automatically? So if I empty the folder, that would be okay? If I create a new restore point, it will be in that folder and I should just leave that most recent one in, right?

- As said before: With every update (every 2nd tuesday of the month) that folder is growing. But you can safely delete the entire content of that folder since Windows will re-create the files that are needed. Then the size of that folder goes from say 200 MB down to say 2 MB. Then you still recovered some 198 MB.

- SRP: It's far from clear what the relationship is between the amount of SRPs and the amount of those files. Again, don't worry, Windows will take care.

- A nice little tool to manage those SRPs (IF & WHEN they show up) is "Restore Point Creator".